The appellant appealed a murder conviction arising from a fatal beating in which the victim died by suffocation after a fractured denture lodged in his throat.
The defence at trial was intoxication, and on appeal the appellant argued non-direction on the causal mechanism of death, failure to leave manslaughter apart from drunkenness, and misdirection on intoxication.
The majority held that, in light of the way the case was tried, the trial judge adequately instructed the jury on the intent requirement for murder and was not required to leave an unargued defence that the accused lacked knowledge apart from intoxication.
The majority also held that the intoxication instruction accorded with existing authority and declined to reconsider the governing law.
The appeal was dismissed, with a dissent that would have ordered a new trial.
